UNCANNY X-MEN #300: Legacies

The X-Men take the fight to the Acolytes!

Originally Published May 1993

We begin with an old Freud...

Yes, after years of seeing neither fire nor tail of Nightcrawler in Uncanny X-Men, he has been called into action from Excalibur at the behest of Professor X. He has a rendezvous with recent former-X-Man Forge, who is in disaffected-loner mode, reluctantly handing off a piece of technology that will help locate the Acolytes' base before peacing out, disaffectedly and lonerly.

Elsewhere, the X-Men arrive at the burned-out chateau owned by Moira MacTaggert to find that someone has left the scene so that it would appear Moira has been killed, but in fact... she has not.

Before they can continue their search, they are accosted by a literal torch and pitchfork mob of French villagers who take exception to the X-Men's presence, recalling the commotion that occurred the last time the X-Men came to France (they were attacked by some neo-Nazis.)

(Exactly 100 issues earlier in Uncanny X-Men #200 - Ed)

(Get outta here Ed! And stop eating my doughnuts!)

Xavier uses his telepathy to pull a disappearing act, which has Wolverine going all "Huh, I'm surprised you did that," which proves that after nearly twenty years of working with him, Logan hasn't actually met Xavier.

We are treated to a flashback of the early days, before the X-Men, with Charles and Moira sitting down to discuss his impending plans to open a school. I guess it's some kind of dream they've been discussing for some time that is now becoming real.

Charles reveals he's got his eye on a quintet of freshly-scrubbed white middle-American teens for his first cohort of students -- but also, a few international draft picks that may make up the second generation when the time is right.

They also discuss the etymology of the so-called "X-Men," which he re-states -- for anyone who didn't read X-Men #1 back in 1963 -- does not stand for "Xavier" but for the X-tra powers in their genes. Why, Charles hadn't even made that connection! Pure coincidence!

Past-Charles is also alarmed to learn that his old flame Magnus seems to have re-surfaced with a chip on his shoulder.

At this point the flashback starts glitching out and we learn that the Acolytes are reading Moira's memories with the help of a mutant whose power is to act as a cable converter for thoughts. Which is handy, in this specific instance.

Still, they've been binge-watching Moira's memories all day and haven't gotten to the useful part, about how she manipulated Magneto's genes. It's pretty slow going, but Fabs is a patient guy.

Aboard the Blackbird en route to Nightcrawler's location, Colossus calls Stevie Hunter back at the mansion for an update on his sister. Seems she's fighting a mysterious fever that is climbing. Peter is concerned and lashes out at Bobby when he tries to offer comfort, given that he and 'Yana are recently orphaned, only having each other.

Upon landing, Nightcrawler makes a remark about how quick Forge was to leave before the X-Men's arrival, only afterward realizing what an awkward thing that is to say to the person he just jilted. Storm takes it in stride, though.

Back at Acolyte Central, head honch Fabian Cortez fantasizes about how cool it would be to use Moira's brainwashing technology to turn more mutants into Acolytes. His colleague Amelia Voght questions why they would want to force people to become members, and Fabian answers: "Because, stupid!"

In a private moment, Moira pulls Fabian aside (by the ponytail) and reminds him about how he actually killed Magneto, the guy all these Acolytes seem to revere, a fact to which they might not take kindly, if revealed.

Fabian does not appreciate the way Moira threatens his preferred narrative, and changes course: let's extract all of her memories as quickly and painfully as possible.

But anyway, when nobody else can hear, Moira gets the attention of the young Neophyte Acolyte (named Neophyte) assigned to serve tea and pick up after her in his glass prison. She lets him in on the secret...

...but the kid refuses to believe it as Moira is currently unverified.

Meanwhile, the X-Men locate the base, on the basis that this is the only place around that looks like a good base for some evil genetic cultists.

Inside, Fabian has a bitchfit, calling out to Gamesmaster and asking him to rope Shaw, Fitzroy and Creed in -- as leader of the Upstarts, he needs their support (no doubt Creed mobilizing his army of racists thugs will prove the difference-maker.) Gamey responds smugly that just because he's leading the game doesn't mean he has won leadership of the Upstarts yet -- he can't force any of them to do anything. Fitzroy complains, the Acolytes would totally turn on him if they ever found out he killed you-know-who.

Except he forgets to say "you-know-who."

At a loss for anything else to do, Fabian overcranks Neophytes' powers and sends him splooshing all the way across the island.

A friendly villager stops by to help him, only to be immediately killed by Fabian's personal guards who just plain hate flatscans.

But the X-Men arrive just in time to fight them off...

...earning them a new ally for the time being. Neophyte gets them into the building just in time to prevent Moira's brain drain.

Public schools are lousy in the future so Bishop can be forgiven for not knowing that "Swiss" isn't a language

There's some fightin'...

And Iceman shows off his recent proclivity for getting creative with his powers by becoming the Ice-Hulk.

Meanwhile, this guy takes exception to the fact that Scott Summers already trademarked the name Cyclops...

And when the intimidatingly-named Acolyte Seamus Melloncamp proclaims himself Jean's worst nightmare, the former sun-devouring Dark Phoenix with the merged consciousness of onetime Goblyn Queen lets him in on the secret that the real nightmare is plain ole Jean:

Elsewhere in the monastery, Professor X reconnects with an old would-be student as we learn that Amelia Voght was up for membership in the original X-Men but declined membership due to preferring to be a pacifist.

But apparently, she's lost her entire family to flatscan violence in that time, radicalizing her and inspiring her to join what is obviously a cult.

Xavier gets no closure as Amelia teleports away. Also hoping to teleport away is Cortez, but he is pulled down from the top of the monastery by Bishop, who boasts that Fabian is a loser who dies in obscurity, a total own from the future.

Cortez responds by supercharging Bishop's power until he is ejecting energy from every orifice.

Not just the ones pictured here

But before he can finish Bishop off, he is attacked from behind by recently turned former Acolyte Neophyte, providing an opening for Wolverine to snikt it up.

Bada-bing, bada-boom, the fight is over. The X-Men extend Neophyte a chance to join up, but he elects to go into non-combatant mode... for now.

Epilog:

Well, Fabian didn't die, and we see him being teleported to a safehouse -- naked with flesh still scarred by Wolverine's claws -- by Amelia. It's unclear if Amelia senses that Fabian was responsible for Magneto's death, but I'm guessing she probably wouldn't still be wearing the uniform if so.

Fab has a quick chat with the Gamesmaster, who informs him that he has slipped down the score charts: all of his points from killing Magneto? Gone.

But... but why?

And in the Professor's Ready Room, he and Moira discuss the latest threat to mutants: not the Friends of Humanity, or the Upstarts or the Sentinels... but a new disease that seems to have cropped up out of nowhere, first affecting people on Genosha, but now coming much closer to home...

Much closer...

Further Thoughts: 

After all the hullaballoo, the changing of creative teams and directions, and the X-Cutioner's Song, Uncanny X-Men wasn't exactly ideally situated to peak any major storylines with its landmark 300 issue. The confrontation with the Acolytes seems to have come up rather abruptly, but at least they managed to make it a knock-down drag-out battle that pretty much goes exactly how you'd expect with little in the way of twists and turns. That said, it works even better as a beginning, as we know -- thanks to the Epilog hastily telling us so -- Fabian Cortez will be back to menace the X-Men again, but also, dun-dun-dunnn... it appears Magneto has survived his latest death.

I appreciated the links to history with Charles and Moira in the pre-history of the X-Men, even indicating that Charles had his eye on Storm, Colossus and Nightcrawler before it was feasible or necessary to recruit them -- sure, why not! And all of this talk makes the revelation that Amelia Voght has a connection with Xavier from back then less sudden. Yes, that is yet another secret revelation from an X-Man's past, but I feel like there is significantly more to be done with this one than Hazard.

But more importantly, the introduction of the Legacy Virus is something that looks to be a big deal going forward, giving the X-Men a "villain" they can't fight with their powers or even reason with. In X-Men Forever, Chris Claremont's metafictional What If series that presents itself as being what would have happened if he has stayed on the title (it's not), the longtime X-writer introduces the idea that mutants are constantly being burned out by their powers. In the mainstream Marvel Universe, there would later be other existential threats to the mutants like Decimation, M-Pox, or Terrigen Mists, but this was the first. As the world of 1993 was becoming increasingly cognizant of the threat of AIDS -- after years of it being misrepresented as a "gay disease" and specifically downplayed by the American Government -- Lobdell introduces a similar scenario for the mutants, somehow managing to thread the needle of it not being too inappropriate or cringey. That indicates that whatever you think of the X-Men in 1993, it's still a comic with ideas and perspective, as is becoming increasingly clear as time goes on.

Uncanny X-Men #300 as it was meant to be seen -- shiny!